I love the taste of black beans, plus they are a good source of fiber. I open a can and rinse the beans in a colander. Then I refrigerate them. I put them in salads, in cottage cheese, top them over brown rice.

I also put them into a whole wheat tortilla and I spread some hummus on it and I add some thinly sliced red onions.

Yup! Black bean brownies! Made them for the first time this weekend. I tweaked the recipes from allrecipes to suit my needs but here is the original. By the time I tweaked it, I had black bean muffin tops and "cookies" .. But it was good. Didn't taste like black beans. Crazy, I know!

Combine the black beans, eggs, oil, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla extract, sugar, and instant coffee in a blender; blend until smooth; pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top of the mixture.

Bake in the preheated oven until the top is dry and the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 30 minutes.

==============
As you can see, I tweaked the heck out of the recipe, but at the time, I just wanted to try something different and to just see if it really didn't have the black bean taste. I will make them again and keep tweaking until I have the perfect low-cal, gluten free brownies for me!

However, with the ORIGINAL recipe I posted came with great reviews....and really the calories aren't too bad either.

I make "burrito bowls" with them - no tortilla, just start with black beans and then hot chili beans, a bit of spanish rice cooked up, salsa, some kernel corn, diced fresh onion and tomatoes and lettuce - in whatever order suits you. I heat up the hot stuff first before adding the diced onion, etc.

I LOVE black beans and have been subsisting on beans for weeks now that I started counting calories. Black beans, pinto beans, white beans, chick peas, all are great.

My favorite thing to do with black beans is make a "fake" Tostada.

I take 1 whole wheat tortilla or wrap (many healthy varieties and brands out there) and I put it under the broiler till it is very crispy like a chip.

I spread fat free or 99% fat free refried black beans (or pinto beans) on it, then I top with a meat or protein like chicken, veggie soy protein sausage or whole black beans (or pinto beans). I then measure out small amount of low fat cheese and I toast more in oven to warm up beans and melt cheese.

Sprinkle on cilantro and other toppings you like, like finely chopped onion, any other veggies you love, measure out fat free sour cream, dollop on salsa, hot sauce etc and pick up the whole thing and eat it. It is so good and super filling!

When I am in a rush for lunch in the morning I make a Tortilla roll up with the same whole wheat tortillas and spread on fat free refried bean mixture. Warm in microwave at work and dip in measured out fat free sour cream and salsa.

Or I just measure out serving size of whole black beans into a tupperware, pour salsa on top and bring a whole wheat tortilla to work to scoop up beans and salsa. Super simple but I love these flavors, beans, salsa and tortillas, over and over.

__________________
Overall Goal! I WILL DO THIS!

Starting over December 13, 2013.
Goal to get as fit as possible for London Vacation on April 14, 2014

i LOVE black beans too. i often do the refried. sautee a chopped clove of garlic and a 1/4 cup of chopped onion, then add the entire can of beans and mush to your liking.

also, i really enjoy a steaming bowl of BB soup.
sautee garlic and onion (green pepper/pablano if you like). Season with 1T of cumin and a little salt n pepper. Using 2 or 3 cans of beans, puree half of the bean mix in the blender. add all the beans into the pot with a cup of salsa (also to your liking - you can always add more). and cook on low until combined. i know this seems like a really general recipe without real quantities, but it's really hard to goof up. at times i also add corn and/or brown rice. you can easily garnish with green onions, cilantro, and plain yogurt. this is a very filling meal.

i also like to do BB patties, eaten as a burger substitute. plenty of recipes easily found on the net and extremely easy to put together too. I've used the BB burger recipe topped with some mashed potatoes for a veggie shepards pie.

One of my favorite ways is to eat mixed with steamed greens and hot sauce.

How moist are chickpeas supposed to be on the inside? I tried cooking my bag of dried chickpeas (according to cookbook directions) and I wasn't sure if I did it right, because the other beans I've eaten before, like kidney beans, were very moist-tasting on the inside, but the chickpeas were almost a little dry, a little crumbly, not all that moist on the inside. I soaked them for 12 hours and then cooked them for 2.5 hours so I'm not sure if I did anything wrong or that's just how they are. If so, I'm moving on to other beans! I like my beans squishy on the inside.

__________________Start Date:03/23/09-212 lbsGoal Date:01/01/10-152 lbsCurrent Weight:157 lbs~~60 lbslost!~~Getting back to maintenance weight:Nothing tastes as good as having confidence feels.

I even tried making a little hummus and the things just wouldn't blend well and it came out very gritty (which made me add a bit more oil than I should have to make it blend a bit better). They were just very gritty, almost crumbly, like more like the texture of a very soft nut. Instead of the inside of the chickpea tasting like a thick paste, it was much much firmer and less moist. It was slightly dry but not SUPER dry. I guess because I've never had plain chickpeas before cooked properly, I don't have a good yardstick for comparison.

__________________Start Date:03/23/09-212 lbsGoal Date:01/01/10-152 lbsCurrent Weight:157 lbs~~60 lbslost!~~Getting back to maintenance weight:Nothing tastes as good as having confidence feels.

I'm guessing they were old beans, you can get unpredictable results with old beans. Basically it takes a lot of cooking to get them to the right texture. Baking soda might help.

How can you tell if a bag of beans is old or not? They weren't past the expiration date yet (2012 it said) and they didn't look wrinkly or anything, but this would be a good skill to have for the supermarket!

__________________Start Date:03/23/09-212 lbsGoal Date:01/01/10-152 lbsCurrent Weight:157 lbs~~60 lbslost!~~Getting back to maintenance weight:Nothing tastes as good as having confidence feels.